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Turbine Takes Full Control Of Middle-Earth Online

Game publisher and developer Turbine, Inc. has announced that it has finalized a deal with Tolkien Enterprises and VU Games that grants Turbine the exclusive right to dev...

Simon Carless, Blogger

March 23, 2005

1 Min Read
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Game publisher and developer Turbine, Inc. has announced that it has finalized a deal with Tolkien Enterprises and VU Games that grants Turbine the exclusive right to develop and publish massively multiplayer online worlds based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit literary works. As part of the agreement, Turbine will own all of the game assets to the upcoming, highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role playing game The Lord of the Rings(tm): Middle-Earth Online. All publishing responsibilities previously assumed by VU Games for the online license have been transitioned to Turbine effective immediately. "As the exclusive publisher, Turbine looks forward to bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's vibrant worlds to online gamers around the globe," said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO, Turbine, Inc. The company has recently made aggressive strides in the MMO market, following significant venture capital funding - it purchased its self-developed Asheron's Call franchise from Microsoft in early 2004, and is also self-funding Dungeons & Dragons Online. As part of this announcement, however, it's been confirmed that Turbine will launch Middle-Earth Online in 2006, significantly delayed from an original launch date of October 2004, but presumably done to ensure much-needed quality in a post-World Of WarCraft MMO space.

About the Author

Simon Carless

Blogger

Simon Carless is the founder of the GameDiscoverCo agency and creator of the popular GameDiscoverCo game discoverability newsletter. He consults with a number of PC/console publishers and developers, and was previously most known for his role helping to shape the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Conference for many years.

He is also an investor and advisor to UK indie game publisher No More Robots (Descenders, Hypnospace Outlaw), a previous publisher and editor-in-chief at both Gamasutra and Game Developer magazine, and sits on the board of the Video Game History Foundation.

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